My special place of escape.

Beautiful setup John with an uncluttered tidiness I can only dream of!

Loving the paddle on the left.  


Thanks for sharing, always a treat to see other operators stations/shacks.

Good morning Victor and thank you for your kind words. It is soon all to alter as we are due to relocate. Our new residence is to be the most lovely bungalow and yet sadly with such small garden compared to our present abode. This in turn means the days of my Myants EFHW 80 10 longwire at 135ft thereabouts are almost over. I have been looking into verticals as this will become the only practical solution and I am hoping to tie this in with my soon to be acquired CB rig. The antenna I am giving serious consideration to is the Comet CHA-250BX11. Perhaps you might afford me, or any other members to that matter, your views on this and if you think it will work for both my HF ham work and my CB work? I already feel another autotuner is going to perhaps be necessary? At present I run my Yaesu FTDX1200 through an LDG YT-1200 autotuner and it all works just great. Even copied North Korea no less and I am informed there are only a couple of ops there!!!

Morning John,

Great to hear about the bungalow move but don't let the lack of antenna farm space worry you too much. We often manage with even the most compromised of antennas my own being mostly pieces of wire strung around the loft space!

I have no personal experience of the antenna you mention or much in the way of verticals except VHF but am sure that there will be others members here at CT that may be able to provide personal insights/advice.

If it helps any the Comet does have some good reviews at eHam.net :-

https://www.eham.net/reviews/view-product?id=5175


I wish you the best with the move and hope all goes smoothly.

Hi again Victor and thank you so much for that. You are so right of course, flipping antennas are not only a minefield of wires everywhere but also an absolute minefield of many often heated debates and condemnations. I guess all part of the fun and learning.

Too right John.

Most antennas are a compromise and it's just a case of finding a compromise that fits your situation really.
Any antenna is always better than no antenna....we don't all have space for a massive rhomboid for 160m.

Not just space issues Victor...much loved wife issues also. It goes along the lines of "and don't you think you are having wires running all over my beautiful new garden"...yes dear, no dear etc etc etc. Bless her and her gladioli. Grrr.

Ha! Ha!

I know what you mean mate even though my wife is very accommodating I keep my antenna antics to a bare minimum, (I have a spare bedroom all to myself as my shack!) Saves on 'Parish Council' and village life neighbourly 'concerns' issues too.

Nice set-up, John.

Hi there John123...John I guess? Thank you so much and it is great to hear from you. I hope to be adding a CRT SS 9900 to my shack as soon as we move and joining you guys, which, quite honestly, is what I need. This covid malarkey has done me no favours, it really hasn't. Nor indeed any of us. In my amateur world of HF I go onto CW as and when, something I learnt as a child as my father was a deepsea sparks. The reason being is simple for myself at least...I am really rather reserved and cw simply makes sense. My reasoning with all of this, my joining CT is that CB is so much less formal. I have been following Fred in the Shed for a good long while now and he is so absolutely encouraging and simplifies everything. He is a jolly good ambassador I feel. Bottom line, it is good to talk and therefore communicate. Can we ever have enough friends? Tell you what John, what is your take on my potential choice of rig?